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Listen
to the Word
"But the tax collector stood
at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast
and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'" (Luke 18:13) |
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Jesus tells a story with an
unexpected hero in Luke 18. He says two men go to the temple to
pray. One has it all together. He is a Pharisee, well-known
for his devotion to God's law and traditional family values. He is
devout and respectable. He stands and prays reciting his
religious resume, reminding God how fortunate God is to have him on His
team. The other man is a tax collector, a despised sell-out with
no redeeming qualities. He hides in the corner, and the best he
can do in prayer is to admit his depravity and beg for mercy. The
punch line of the story is that the tax collector goes home in a right
relationship with God, while the Pharisee departs no better than he was
when the story began. Apparently, honest confession from sinful
folks is God's kind of prayer.
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